What is the time complexity of accessing the nth element of a singly linked list?O(n!)O(2^n)O(1)O(n)O(nlog(n))O(n^2)O(log(n))

Break Down the Problem

1. Identify the data structure involved: singly linked list.
2. Understand the operation to be analyzed: accessing the nth element.

Relevant Concepts

3. In a singly linked list, elements are chained together via pointers. To access the nth element, traversal is necessary from the head of the list to the nth node.

Analysis and Detail

4. Accessing the nth element involves starting at the head of the list and following the pointers to the next node until reaching the desired node. This requires looking at each node sequentially.
5. The time taken to access the nth element is directly proportional to the number of nodes traversed, which is n in the worst-case scenario.

Verify and Summarize

6. Since accessing the nth element of a singly linked list requires traversing n nodes, the time complexity of this operation is $O(n)$.

Final Answer

The time complexity of accessing the nth element of a singly linked list is $O(n)$.